Vintage recordings of ethnic music

The Living Tradition “Music from Turkey” (Deben Bhattacharya recordings)

Another great lp from Deben Bhattacharya, this time on the english label Argo. This label issued many recordings of Mr. Bhattacharya under the generic title “The Living Tradition” in the 1960’s. Now, thanks to Bolingo and his fabulous blog “Anthems of the nation of Luobanya”, you can hear many of this lps, that includes great field recordings from many different countries.

-Here’s a review for the present lp found on Gramophone.net:

An excellent note with the Turkish record reminds us that Konya, the traditional centre of Anatolian cultures, has passed over the centuries through the domination of the Hittites, the Phrygians, the Lydians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. This and the geographical situation of Turkey, where Europe joins Asia, have contributed to a folklore of vast variety and many influences. In addition to music which is strange in itself but fascinating, we hear here a wide variety of instruments which are equally unfamiliar, some primitive but some more sophisticated. Among the latter are the Divan Saz, a long-necked lute of eight strings, the Kemenche, a short-necked threestringed fiddle, the Cura Saz, a six-stringed lute, and the Nay, a double-reed woodwind instrument with six finger holes. The former are for the most part percussion instruments ranging from drums of various shapes and sizes to sets of Kasik, wooden spoons used in the style of Chinese chopsticks. As in most folk music the songs and dances deal or are associated with natural events of many kinds, from the harvest to sheep tending and from love songs to dances appropriate to drinking occasions.

Like this:

Related

6 Responses

Thank you very much. I have found three more Battacharya that I hope to share soon but i am unfortunately a little more busy than usual at the moment. This Argo was very nice to have! Thank you very much! And the scans look super!

Hi Bolingo,
I watched more closely to the vinyl and although it’s written on the back of the sleeve that side B has 6 tracks, there are only 5 grooves on the disc and i cut according to the grooves. Also your listing of the tracks in the zip file doesn’t correspond to the one i have so i’m perplex. Let’s go to sleep for now, and I’ll watch again tomorrow…
All the best,
Gadaya

No rush whatsoever! I am supposed to do other things anyhow and we will certainly get this sorted out in due time! Enjoy a good nights sleep with the angels and everything will be so much easier tomorrow or the following days… :-)

Hello all, I hope my sense of the correct listing, via my amateur ear, is received well. I read the back cover carefully and compared the tracks. Here’s how it sounds to me, keeping in mind that I believe it’s the kaval track at 6:16 which is the culprit and is likely to be two tracks, B1 AND B2, with B1 being either 1:55 or 4:21 in length (I checked with Goldwave’s graphic display and clear breaks were at those two points. Also I noted that the two “ney” tracks on side 1 are, as per back cover, not ney at all as we know it, but a native double reed instrument, solving that ambiguity as well. I hope my attempt to format with the track times comes out readable!!!